TONY
“I’ve got myself a job this week. This lady hired me to take out her bathtub. I hope I can still do it; you know that those old bathtubs are heavy as hell.
“I guess that’s what happens when you go telling people you’ll do odd jobs.”
Archive for the 'job' Category
Bath, house, drag
July 23, 2007Tony’s story — Part #3
February 23, 2007
TONY (written while he was in jail)
I don’t know how many people remember the old horse and milk wagon that used to go around the streets picking up empty bottles and replacing them with fresh bottles of milk. When I was about eight years old, the milkman would pay me 2 cents a bottle. Some customers would put their weekly milk payments on top of their empties on the porch; they were always people who lived in big houses and who had big money. My family had to live too, so a few bucks here and there plus my $1.50 per day helped us stay alive.
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PS: Tony has a court date on Monday, Feb 26. It’s also his 58th birthday.
The patience of job
January 6, 2007
PHILIP
“I see you’ve got a new sign. You’re offering to do odd jobs now. Why didn’t you have the same message on your old sign?
TONY
“You know how many jobs I’ve been stiffed on? I’ll do a job like raking leaves or cleaning up someone’s alleyway and he swears he’s paying minimum wage or something. Then afterwards, the guy says he doesn’t have the cash and writes me a cheque. I’ve seen some rubber cheques do their bouncing, believe me. What am I going to do, beat ’em up?
“Anyway, now I learned to get half my money up front. Well some folks don’t like me being uppity like that and they go look for someone else. Of course, then their job doesn’t get done right so now they’re asking me again, and no problem with cash upfront this time. Well, the way I see it, they had their chance and they didn’t want me then. So they can do their own job, as far as I’m concerned.”
PHILIP
“So why are you offering to do odd jobs again?”
TONY
“I’m just fed up the way things are so I figured I’d try again.”
Job troubles, bone troubles and crack troubles
December 29, 2006PHILIP
“Tony, why don’t you look for a job? One guy even put a question on the blog asking why you don’t look for a job every day. Lots of people genuinely don’t understand why you don’t. I even bet quite a few people who are sympathetic to the homeless issue have problems with the job thing.”
TONY
“OK, well, first of all, you don’t get paid for looking for a job because you’re not at your panhandling station. So how am I supposed to get food when I’m looking for a job?
“And how are folks supposed to call me when I don’t even have a phone? Well, if anyone ever finds out that I went and got a cell phone, I bet most of ’em wouldn’t give me money again. A homeless guy with his own cell phone?! You got to be kidding me. Even if someone gave it to me I’m dead in the water.
“Then there’s that I don’t even have an address. You can’t even a shower except in a shelter or sometimes when you rent a room.
“Look at the bags under my eyes. How’s someone going to hire you if you got bags under your eyes since you don’t get enough sleep?
“I’ve got a bad back, my knees are killing me and there’s my collar bone. So I can’t do stuff with lots of walking or lifting things like I used to. I used to deliver those big phone books. You should try carrying eight phone books on your shoulder going straight uphill.
“Plus my feet are real bad. I’ve got a [deep skin] crack in both of ’em now.
“Anyway, just have those folks walk in my shoes for one day. Then you’ll understand what it’s all about.”
Tony picks guys in the red light district
December 26, 2006
TONY
“I worked for my aunt back when I was younger. She was a red lighter. I just hung around until she got the guy on the blocks. Then I’d get his pants and pick ’em.”
PHILIP
“How old were you?”
TONY
“About eight I think.”
Homeless Man Speaks 